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Grace Stone Coates
Grace Stone Coates (May 21, 1881 - January 1976) was an American poet who also wrote short stories, novels, and news articles. Coates published her first poem, "The Intruder," in 1921 and her first novel, Black Cherries, in 1931. She co-edited and wrote for Frontier, a literary magazine edited by Harold G. Merriam, a creative writing professor at the University of Montana.Biographical Note, Guide to the Grace Stone Coates Papers 1930-1932, NWDA. Web, Mar. 10, 2015. Life Youth Coates was born Grace Genevieve Stone, on a wheat farm in Kansas, to Heinrich and Olive Stone. She was the youngest of 4 children. Grace and her older sister, Helen, were born to Heinrich and Olive. The 2 older children were born to Heinrich and his 1st wife. Heinrich had a rich classical background; he taught Greek in Berlin before coming to the United States. He channeled his love of the classics into his interactions with Grace, recited poetry to her, took her on long walks to learn the names of plants and trees, and read her mythology until she could recite it from memory. Her poetry was greatly influenced by her childhood and by her father.Grace Stone Coates, Her life in letters (edited by Lee Rostad). Helena, MT: Riverbend, 2004. Print. When Grace was in high school her family moved to Wisconsin, where she attended Oshkosh State Normal School. Coates also attended the University of Chicago, the University of Southern California and the University of Hawaii. She never finished a degree, but received her teaching certificate in 1900. Montana She moved to Stevensville, Montana, to be closer to her sister Helen, and started teaching. She later moved to Butte, Montana, where she met her future husband, Henderson Coates. The 2 married in 1910 and moved to Martinsdale, Montana, where her husband opened a general store with his brother. Grace taught in Martinsdale from 1914–1919 and was the Meagher County superintendent from 1918 to 1921. This is where she started writing. Her 1st poem, "The Intruder," which was published in Poetry: A magazine of verse.Grace Stone Coates Papers, K. Ross Toole Archives, The University of Montana-Missoula In 1927 H.G. Merriam asked Coates to help him with a literary magazine, Frontier. She started writing articles and poems for the magazine, and before long became the assistant editor. Merriam encouraged her to get her work published, helped her find publishers, and in 1931 she published two books; her 1st novel, Black Cherries, and her 1st book of poems, Mead & Mangel-Wurzel. Coates worked for the magazine out of Northwest Montana, until it stopped circulating in 1939. During the Great Depression, Coates helped write the WPA Federal Writers' Project Montana state guidebook. Coates stopped writing seriously in the 1930s, but she continued to participate in her favorite form of writing through letters. After her death, her letters were collected and used to illustrate her life in a biography written by Lee Rostad. Grace started losing some of her mental capacity when her husband passed away. She began to see things that weren't there, such as intruders in her house, and was found wandering around outside in the middle of the night. She had a hard time remembering when and what she ate, and suffered from malnutrition. Her neighbors in Martinsdale got together in 1963 to move her to a retirement home in Bozeman. There, with a healthy diet and adequate rest, she was able to write a column for the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. The column was named Hillcrest Highlights, for the Hillcrest Retirement Home she was living in. Coates passed away in 1976, she was 95. According to her wishes, her body was cremated, and the ashes were scattered west of Martinsdale in one of the places she loved to walk.Honey Wine and Hunger Root, Rostad, Lee, 1985, Falcon Press, Helena/Billings, Montana Writing In the 1920s and first part of the 1930s, Coates published well over a hundred poems and short stories. She edited for Caxton Press (Idaho), Frontier, and wrote stories for local and Montana state papers. She published a novel and two books of poetry in the early 1930s. She wrote letters. Her writing drew inspiration from her childhood, her love of nature, her love for her husband Henderson, and bouts with depression. Coates stopped writing everything but letters in the late 1930s, only to start back up again when she moved to a Bozeman, Montana, retirement home.Food of Gods and Starvelings: The selected poems of Grace Stone Coates (edited by Lee Rostad & Rick Newby). Helena, MT: Drumlummon Institute, 2007. Print Recognition Historian Lee Rostad knew Coates when she lived in Martinsdale, and wanted to make sure the Coates legacy wasn't forgotten. After Coates's death, she took it upon herself to collect as many letters and unpublished work as she could find and publish it in a biography, Honey Wine and Hunger Root, which was published in 1985. Rostad published two other books about Coates, one a collection of poetry, Food of Gods and Starvelings, and one a collection of letters and unpublished poems, Grace Stone Coates, Her Life in Letters. Publications Poetry *''Mead and Mangle-Wurzel''. Caldwell, ID: Caxton, 1931. *''Portualacas in the West''. Caldwell, ID: Caxton, 1932. *''Food of Gods and Starvelings: Selected poems'' (edited by Lee Rostad & Rick Newby). Helena, MT: Drumlummon Institute, 2007. Novel *''Clear Title: A novel''. Helena, MT: Drumlummon Institute, 2014. Short fiction *''Black Cherries'' (linked stories). New York & London: Alfred Knopf, 1931; Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2003. Non-fiction *''Riding the High Country'' (with Patrick T. Tucker). Seattle, OR: Fjord Press, 1987. Collected editions *''Honey Wine and Hunger Root'' (edited by Lee Rostad). Helena, MT: Falcon Press, 1985. Letters *''Grace Stone Coates: Her life in letters'' (edited by Lee Rostad). Helena, MT: Riverbend, 2004. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Grace Stone Coates, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Mar. 10, 2015. See also * List of U.S. poets References External links *"The Intruder" * "Berries Sweet and Bitter" (4 poems) in Poetry, January 1930 ;Audio / video *"Wild Plums" (short story) ;Books *Grace Stone Coates at Amazon.com ;About *Coates, Grace Stone, 1881-1976 at the Social Networks and Archival Context Project ;Etc. * The Grace Stone Coates Papers, 1930-1932 * The Grace Stone Coates Papers, 1933-1960 Category:1881 births Category:1976 deaths Category:People from Meagher County, Montana Category:American poets Category:Writers from Montana Category:20th-century poets Category:Poets Category:20th-century women writers Category:American women writers Category:English-language poets Category:Women poets